towards a better delusion

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

Wife-lending and reciprocal sharing of spouses are cooperative features of Eskimo marital-sexual life wherein the fundamental marital status of the wife is not altered; the act being no more than a gesture of friendly hospitality permitted by the husband.

Among the Alaskan Eskimos on the West coast, Nelson reported that murder for economic gain was so regular that among the Malemute "only relatives or formal friends dared to hunt together" for fear one hunting partner might slay the other.

A killer who kills several persons at once may enhance, not injure, his prestige in the community. Not so, the homicidal recidivist. He becomes a social menace, liable at any time to strike down another victim. As a general menace, he becomes a public enemy. As a public enemy, he becomes the object of public action. The action is legal execution.

In 1921, for instance, the headman of the Arviligjuarmiut was deputed by his fifty-four co-villagers to execute his own brother, who occasionally went berserk, having killed one man and wounded others in his fits. The headman went reluctantly to his brother and explaining his position, asked how he chose to die, by steel, thong, or shot. The brother chose the latter, and was killed on the spot.

At Point Barrow, on the north Alaskan coast, a brother and an uncle shot and killed their kinsman who had murdered ten to twelve victims whom he had ambushed on his march from Herschel Island to the Point. The man had been publicly whipped by the whaling captains at Herschel on injunction of the local missionary, for the reason that he had exposed a baby to die. All the Eskimos had reacted with disgust to such unheard-of punishment, for to their mind, "to whip a man does not cure him."

The obnoxious person is first ostracized, then liquidated if he continues his bothersome behavior.

Sorcery and chronic lying are placed in the same category as homicidal recidivism.

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

Wife-lending and reciprocal sharing of spouses are cooperative features of Eskimo marital-sexual life wherein the fundamental marital status of the wife is not altered; the act being no more than a gesture of friendly hospitality permitted by the husband.

Among the Alaskan Eskimos on the West coast, Nelson reported that murder for economic gain was so regular that among the Malemute "only relatives or formal friends dared to hunt together" for fear one hunting partner might slay the other.

A killer who kills several persons at once may enhance, not injure, his prestige in the community. Not so, the homicidal recidivist. He becomes a social menace, liable at any time to strike down another victim. As a general menace, he becomes a public enemy. As a public enemy, he becomes the object of public action. The action is legal execution.

In 1921, for instance, the headman of the Arviligjuarmiut was deputed by his fifty-four co-villagers to execute his own brother, who occasionally went berserk, having killed one man and wounded others in his fits. The headman went reluctantly to his brother and explaining his position, asked how he chose to die, by steel, thong, or shot. The brother chose the latter, and was killed on the spot.

At Point Barrow, on the north Alaskan coast, a brother and an uncle shot and killed their kinsman who had murdered ten to twelve victims whom he had ambushed on his march from Herschel Island to the Point. The man had been publicly whipped by the whaling captains at Herschel on injunction of the local missionary, for the reason that he had exposed a baby to die. All the Eskimos had reacted with disgust to such unheard-of punishment, for to their mind, "to whip a man does not cure him."

The obnoxious person is first ostracized, then liquidated if he continues his bothersome behavior.

Sorcery and chronic lying are placed in the same category as homicidal recidivism.

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

Wife-lending and reciprocal sharing of spouses are cooperative features of Eskimo marital-sexual life wherein the fundamental marital status of the wife is not altered; the act being no more than a gesture of friendly hospitality permitted by the husband.

Among the Alaskan Eskimos on the West coast, Nelson reported that murder for economic gain was so regular that among the Malemute "only relatives or formal friends dared to hunt together" for fear one hunting partner might slay the other.

A killer who kills several persons at once may enhance, not injure, his prestige in the community. Not so, the homicidal recidivist. He becomes a social menace, liable at any time to strike down another victim. As a general menace, he becomes a public enemy. As a public enemy, he becomes the object of public action. The action is legal execution.

In 1921, for instance, the headman of the Arviligjuarmiut was deputed by his fifty-four co-villagers to execute his own brother, who occasionally went berserk, having killed one man and wounded others in his fits. The headman went reluctantly to his brother and explaining his position, asked how he chose to die, by steel, thong, or shot. The brother chose the latter, and was killed on the spot.

At Point Barrow, on the north Alaskan coast, a brother and an uncle shot and killed their kinsman who had murdered ten to twelve victims whom he had ambushed on his march from Herschel Island to the Point. The man had been publicly whipped by the whaling captains at Herschel on injunction of the local missionary, for the reason that he had exposed a baby to die. All the Eskimos had reacted with disgust to such unheard-of punishment, for to their mind, "to whip a man does not cure him."

The obnoxious person is first ostracized, then liquidated if he continues his bothersome behavior.

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

Wife-lending and reciprocal sharing of spouses are cooperative features of Eskimo marital-sexual life wherein the fundamental marital status of the wife is not altered; the act being no more than a gesture of friendly hospitality permitted by the husband.

Among the Alaskan Eskimos on the West coast, Nelson reported that murder for economic gain was so regular that among the Malemute "only relatives or formal friends dared to hunt together" for fear one hunting partner might slay the other.

A killer who kills several persons at once may enhance, not injure, his prestige in the community. Not so, the homicidal recidivist. He becomes a social menace, liable at any time to strike down another victim. As a general menace, he becomes a public enemy. As a public enemy, he becomes the object of public action. The action is legal execution.

In 1921, for instance, the headman of the Arviligjuarmiut was deputed by his fifty-four co-villagers to execute his own brother, who occasionally went berserk, having killed one man and wounded others in his fits. The headman went reluctantly to his brother and explaining his position, asked how he chose to die, by steel, thong, or shot. The brother chose the latter, and was killed on the spot.

At Point Barrow, on the north Alaskan coast, a brother and an uncle shot and killed their kinsman who had murdered ten to twelve victims whom he had ambushed on his march from Herschel Island to the Point. The man had been publicly whipped by the whaling captains at Herschel on injunction of the local missionary, for the reason that he had exposed a baby to die. All the Eskimos had reacted with disgust to such unheard-of punishment, for to their mind, "to whip a man does not cure him."

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

Wife-lending and reciprocal sharing of spouses are cooperative features of Eskimo marital-sexual life wherein the fundamental marital status of the wife is not altered; the act being no more than a gesture of friendly hospitality permitted by the husband.

Among the Alaskan Eskimos on the West coast, Nelson reported that murder for economic gain was so regular that among the Malemute "only relatives or formal friends dared to hunt together" for fear one hunting partner might slay the other.

A killer who kills several persons at once may enhance, not injure, his prestige in the community. Not so, the homicidal recidivist. He becomes a social menace, liable at any time to strike down another victim. As a general menace, he becomes a public enemy. As a public enemy, he becomes the object of public action. The action is legal execution.

In 1921, for instance, the headman of the Arviligjuarmiut was deputed by his fifty-four co-villagers to execute his own brother, who occasionally went berserk, having killed one man and wounded others in his fits. The headman went reluctantly to his brother and explaining his position, asked how he chose to die, by steel, thong, or shot. The brother chose the latter, and was killed on the spot.

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

Wife-lending and reciprocal sharing of spouses are cooperative features of Eskimo marital-sexual life wherein the fundamental marital status of the wife is not altered; the act being no more than a gesture of friendly hospitality permitted by the husband.

Among the Alaskan Eskimos on the West coast, Nelson reported that murder for economic gain was so regular that among the Malemute "only relatives or formal friends dared to hunt together" for fear one hunting partner might slay the other.

A killer who kills several persons at once may enhance, not injure, his prestige in the community. Not so, the homicidal recidivist. He becomes a social menace, liable at any time to strike down another victim. As a general menace, he becomes a public enemy. As a public enemy, he becomes the object of public action. The action is legal execution.

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

Wife-lending and reciprocal sharing of spouses are cooperative features of Eskimo marital-sexual life wherein the fundamental marital status of the wife is not altered; the act being no more than a gesture of friendly hospitality permitted by the husband.

Among the Alaskan Eskimos on the West coast, Nelson reported that murder for economic gain was so regular that among the Malemute "only relatives or formal friends dared to hunt together" for fear one hunting partner might slay the other.

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

Wife-lending and reciprocal sharing of spouses are cooperative features of Eskimo marital-sexual life wherein the fundamental marital status of the wife is not altered; the act being no more than a gesture of friendly hospitality permitted by the husband.

Among the Alaskan Eskimos on the West coast, Nelson reported that murder for economic gain was so regular that among the Malemute "only relatives or formal friends dared to hunt together" for fear one hunting partner might slay the other.

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

Wife-lending and reciprocal sharing of spouses are cooperative features of Eskimo marital-sexual life wherein the fundamental marital status of the wife is not altered; the act being no more than a gesture of friendly hospitality permitted by the husband.

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."

Not unusually, however, parents kill their own children to be eaten. This act is no different from infanticide. A man may kill and eat his wife; it is his privilege. Killing and eating a relative will produce no legal consequences. It is to be presumed, however, that killing a non-relative for food is murder. Yet it is not certain that the presumption is borne out. No revenge cases arising out of anthropophagous homicide have been found. On the other hand, Boas cites a voracious Baffin Islander who killed and ate twelve persons in time of famine, without indicating any legal consequences.

In fourteen Eskimo groups outside of East and South Greenland (where infanticide is rare) the ratio of girls to boys among children under ten years of age ranges from forty-two to ninety-two girls to each hundred boys. Among adults the proportions are reversed. So high is occupational mortality among men, that in twenty Eskimo groups only three had fewer women than men, while in half the groups there were more than one hundred and ten women to a hundred men. Were it not for infanticide there would be one and a half times as many adult females as there are males in the average Eskimo community.

The Moon Spirit of the Iglulik adds his comfort in the gentle urging: "Come, Come to me! It is not painful to kill yourself. It is only a brief moment of dizziness."